Fire-alarm.



W. H. VQGTL'AXNDER.v

' FIRE ALARM. APPLICATION FILED PAM/45,4918.

1,294,207; Patented Feb. 11; 1919.

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when subyected WILLIAM 1-1. VOGTTIANDER, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.

man-A ARM.

Application filed May 15, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

it known that, I, \VILLIAM H: Voen LANDER, a citizen of the United Stntes of America, residing at Alexandria, "in the county of Alexandria and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful mprovements in Fire-Alarms; of which the following is a specification.

,Ilhis invention relates to fire-alarms of the thermal type and it has for its object to provide an improved device of this character constructed in such manner that it will'indicatc'the existence and location of tires which at their incipiency have but a small degree of heat, such for example as smoldering rags. cigarette stubs, bedding or other articles of a nature such that the fire will smolder rather than blaze.

Many fires are of a smoldering nature on the start and if such fires can be detected at once and extinguished. not only will an enormous resultant fire loss be prevented but the great damage caused by water in extinguishing blazing tires, will be In 'carrying out the invention, 1 provide electrical apparatus comprising annunciators and connect thereto detectors adapted to'be located in closets and other places where smoldering fires are likely to "occur, said detectors being adapted to close an electric circuit and thereby indicate at the annunciator the location of the fire.

I am aware of the fact that it has heretotore been proposed to provide detectors of this general nature comprising fusible strips, which when fused, permit the completion or" an electric circuit for the purpose of indicating the location of the fire. However, such of these devices as I am familiar with require a considerable degree of. heat to efiect the foregoing result. In carrying out the present invention, I provide a fusible strip which is of sutti Lent strength to hold spring actuated electrical terminals apart but which will readily burn. I have found celluloid particularly desirable for this pur- Celluloid, however, will not burn to a smoldering fire; it will .smolder but will not break into a blaze unless subjected to a. considerable initial degree of heat. To insure the ready ignition of the celluloid, I provide a portion of the celluloid with a head of highly combustible material such as match composition or bri1nstone which will flare up when sub ected to even a smoldering fire and will in turn Specification oflctters Patent.

prevented.

Patented ran it. rein. Serial No. 234,751. I

ignite the celluloid and cause the latter to burn.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 1s a diagranunatic perspective View of a fire al'arinsystem and apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a employed in conjunction therewith, and;

Fig. 3 is a detail view of the inflammable celluloid detent hereinafter described.

L1ke numerals designate corresponding parts in allot the figures of the drawing.

Referring to the drawing, 5 designates a base for the detector, this base preferably being of insulating material. A contact lug 6, mounted upon the base, carries a terminal 7, to which a conducting wire 8 is connected. Mounted between brackets 9 and 10 on the base 5 is a cylinder 11. 'A spring 1:? is disposed in this cylinder and this spring normally tends to thrust a disk 13 and a rod let by which said disk is carried toward the contact bracket 6. The rod 14- has an upturned end 15, and the base 5 carries an upstanding post 16 that is in line with the upturned end of the rod 14:. The bracket 10 carries a terminal 17 to which a. conducting wire 18 is connected. The fusible or inflammable detent consists of an L shaped member 19 of celluloid this detail view of a two way switch member comprising the arms 19 .and i9. I

The arm 19 has a head 20 of match com position or brnnstone and it is to be noted that by virtue of the L shape of the intlam mable member this head 20 is caused to pro-' project laterally into a pile of cloth, rags or like n'iatcrial likely to smolder when ignited. The arm 19 of the detent isprovided with a -T shaped head 21 over which ears :22 of a clip 23 are bent. The clip. is providedwith an opening 24 that is gaged by the post 16 and an. opening 25 is formed in the detent 19 at the juncture of the arms 19 and 19" for the reception of the-upturned end 15 of the rod 14. It will be seen that with the parts in the position shown in the drawing, that is with lhe detect engaged with the post 16 and the upturned end 25. the rod 1d will be retracted against the tension of the spring 12 and the end of this rod will be held out of contact with the contact bracket 6 and the circuit will be broken between the wires 8 and 18.

If, however, the presence of a fire causes the head 20 to become ignited, this will in turn ignite. the celluloid detent l9 and the same will be consumed, thereby releasing the rod 14: and permitting it to move underthe action of the .spring 12 into engagement with the contact bracket 6, thus completing a circuit between the wires 8 and 18. The

wire 18 is connected to one of the terminals leading to a specific one of the annunicator indicators, in the usual and well known way.

The switch also comprises an arm 33 adapted to establish electrical connection between the conductor 8 and a conductor 34 leading to. a second annunciator 35. The purpose ,of providing two annunciators is that the annunicator 31-may be located upon the premises where the fire is likely to occur, while. the larger annunicator may be located at fire-alarm headquarters or other desired place and the switch arms 32 and 33 render it possible to bring the detectors into operative relation to either or both of these annunciators. The annunciator 35' is" connected by a conductor 36 with the terminal 28 of the battery 27.

The present invention possesses advantages over the sprinkling systems, generally employed, for the reason that frequently the damage caused by water, in the use of sprinkling s stems, exceeds the damage caused by systems are open to the objection that the pipes are likely to freeze in very cold weather or that they are liableto be set off accidentally, as by the breaking of a sprin kler head or by excessive heat from other causes than a fire.

The present invention is not open to any of these objections, it will cost but a very small amount to install, will not be subject to deterioration and by the prevention of one small fire will more than pay for the cost of installation.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the invention is not limited to the precise construction set forth, but that it includes within its purview whatever changes -fairly come within the spirit of the appended. claims.

Having described my invention what I claim is:

A device of the character described comprising a base, a fixed element carried thereby, a movable contact completing member mounted thereon, a spring tending to move said member to contact completing position, a detent of celluloid of L shape one arm of which lies longitudinally above the base and is engaged with the fixed element and the movable contact completing member to restrain the latter and the other arm of which extends laterally beyond the base and a head of highly inflammable material at the extremity of the last named arm 7 which serves as an igniter for the celluloid.

In testimon whereof I afiix my si nature. WIL IAM H. VOGTLAN ER.

re. Furthermore, sprinkling 

